From luthier Ron DeMarino:
"When I got the Les Paul Junior from John, it was in its
original condition factory sunburst finish, single P90 pickup,
wraparound tail piece, and Kluson tuners, but he wanted it modified. He
didn't know much about guitars. For instance, he wanted a guitar with
"humberdincker" pickups in it. Obviously he was referring to humbucker
pickups, but he didn't know. He would say, 'I'm a rhythmer, you know? I
don't know anything about these things.' I would try to talk him into
getting a better sound out of this or that like, 'Why don't you put
these pickups in? You'll get a better sound.' That's when we did his Les Paul Junior, and I put a Charlie Christian
pickup in. John liked the way the Junior played and sounded but he thought it
didn't stay in tune. We talked about it, and I decided
to remove the wraparound tailpiece, plug the holes, and install a Gibson
Tune-O-Matic bridge with a stop tailpiece. I also took off the old
Kluson tuning pegs and put on a new set of tuners. Nobody thought twice
about modifying an old guitar in those days. It wasn't like today, where
guys are worried about wrecking the value of a vintage guitar. We would
just do whatever had to be done to make a guitar function better. And
that's what I did with his Les Paul Junior. John also asked me to sand off the Sunburst Finish and put the guitar
to bare wood, the mahogany. That's the last I worked on it".
On August 30, 1972 John Lennon used
his highly modified Gibson Les Paul Junior during his famous live performance at New York's Madison Square
Garden. Though Lennon's actual Les Paul is on display in the John Lennon Museum in Japan, we're proud to offer Gibson's faithful recreation of the Beetle's guitar. This example, one of just 300 made, remains in stellar condition and makes a fabulous addition to any Beetle enthusiast's collection.
Includes OHSC.
